Fabled Lands Application (FLApp)

v1.0.4
--------------------------------

The most current version of this software (and the source code) can be downloaded
from
https://sourceforge.net/projects/flapp/

Previous versions may also be available on the previous home page

http://au.geocities.com/jemann75/
and at the Yahoo group
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/fabledlands/

Installation
------------

- Installing Java
---------------
This program requires Java 5.0 (or better) to run.
This is available at:
http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

There should be a link there to the current JRE; any version from 5.0 on will do,
although the most recent version is probably the best.
As of this writing, Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 is the most recent version.

Users of Mac OS X will need to go here instead:

http://developer.apple.com/java/download/

If you're not sure which version of Java you have installed, you can try running
FLApp
as described below. Earlier versions will either show a popup message with the
message

"Could not find the main class. Program will exit."

or will briefly show a Command Prompt window with a message like

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError

(Unsupported major.minor version 49.0)
etc.

Either of these means you'll need to download a newer version of Java to run FLApp.

- Installing FLApp
----------------
Once Java is installed, you should be able to run FLApp by extracting FLApp.zip
into a new folder and running FLApp.bat. Windows users may be able to simply
double-click on flands.jar to run it. Alternatively, you can create a
command prompt window, change to the directory you unzipped the files to, and type:

java -jar flands.jar

If you have a previous installation of FLApp, you can simply extract the zip to
overwrite the old installation. This will leave any saved game unaffected
(though see the note below about saved games).

- Adding the illustrations

 ------------------------
The illustrations for the books are available at the same website as FLApp, and
will work
with version 0.96 and later. If you haven't downloaded the version that already
includes
the illustrations, you can get them as separate downloads. You will need to copy
these files
('illus1.zip', 'illus2.zip' and so on) into your installation directory. DO NOT
unzip these
files! Once there, the program will find and display them in the 'book' window.
Note that the illustrations are scaled to fit in the window, and will only be
displayed at
their full size (and best quality) if the window is wide enough.

How to use
----------
The aim of this project has been to present an experience as close as possible to
reading
the original gamebooks, while automating all the game rules. The main interface
ended up
looking a lot like a browser window, with executable elements underlined. Greyed-
out text
is disabled; either it will become enabled as you progress through the section, or
it
depends on conditions that haven't been met. Hopefully this is intuitive to use
(if not to explain). If you're not sure what an underlined 'action' will do, you
can
right-click on it to bring up a tool-tip, which may or may not clarify the
situation.

The rules of the original books can be read in the 'Help' menu. Given that the
rules are
implemented for you, the 'Quick Rules' are probably sufficient.

The Adventure Sheet is largely non-interactive. The elements that _are_ interactive
(the item list, money box, blessings, and curses) can be used via the mouse.
Double-clicking will 'use' an item or blessing (wielding a weapon, wearing armour,
using a special item, or using a luck blessing). The items also have popup menus
(activated by right-clicking on an item), through which they can be dropped, sold,
or transferred to a cache.

Abilities are shown in their 'affected' state: that is, their value after all
bonuses and
penalties are applied. Each of the six abilities has a tooltip showing how the
score has
been calculated; you can see this by bringing the Adventure Sheet to the front (by
clicking
the window title-bar) and letting the mouse linger over an ability.

Some book locations contain a 'cache' - a place you can leave items or money.
Double-clicking on an item or money will allow you to transfer stuff between these
caches
and your Adventure Sheet. There are also popup context menus which will list
all the options available.

Games are saved to files with the extension '.dat'. The 'Quicksave' and 'Quickload'
options
save to and from the file 'savegame.dat'. You can select a saved game in the file
browser
to see the character's name, rank, and profession, their location, and the date at
which that
game was saved. If this information doesn't come up, that game can't be loaded in
this version.

This version introduces a new 'Hardcore' mode, which deletes a saved game after
you've
loaded it and continued on. In this mode, you can also only save the game when you
stop playing. This is an easy system to get around, but I thought some players
might
relish the thrill of playing without a safety net.

Each book came with a map of the region it covered; this is the 'local map'
displayed in
the bottom right corner of the screen. A 'global map' is available from the menu;
most of
the published books are concentrated near the top and center of this map.

The 'Extra Choice' menu usually lists only one option: Death. This will take you to
the
section that handles the character's death, and is available because occasionally
your
character is killed without an option of what to do next. This may sound
nonsensical,
but death is not necessarily an end in this series...

If you survive long enough to own a ship or two, you can transfer crew and cargo
between
them by using the 'Ship Transfer' menu item. Note that ships have to be in the same
location
before this is enabled. A ship's name can be changed at any time by clicking on the
name
and typing. You can also bring up another popup menu for each ship, allowing you to
dump cargo.

The main 'book' font can be changed via the 'Windows->Choose Font...' menu item.

Credits
-------

All source code is by Jonathan Mann.

Book text copyright Dave Morris & Jamie Thomson, 1996.
Illustrations copyright Russ Nicholson.
Thanks to Andy for creating PDFs of the books. Book 5 was typed up personally, but
the
others could be converted far more quickly via cut and paste.
Thanks to Andy and Simon for scanning the book illustrations (I lack scanner-fu).
Thanks to all the bug-finders for improving the game and keeping me honest!

Features to come
----------------
- a complete absence of bugs (ha)

Bugs
----
Many, probably. If you discover some, please email me at the address below.
Changes in the code to deal with newly added books may break books that were
previously
working; to find these problems I need to either a) be psychic, or b) have good
testers.

A very happy Holy Day of the Recantation of the Soul to all.

--jonathan mann (jemann75@yahoo.com)
--24 June '10